Distinctive knowledge in mining cost curves, supply and demand models

MineSpans enables strategic decision making by providing mining operators and investors with the most robust cost curves, tools, supply and demand models, and commodity outlooks.

Minespans by McKinsey: robust mining cost curves, supply and demand models

Cost Curves and Models

• Highly granular historical and forecasted cash costs broken down by activity, including mining, processing, overhead, freight, treatment charges, refining charges, byproducts, royalties, and additional full sustaining costs, such as sustaining capital expenditures and corporate selling, general, and administrative costs
• Detailed cost analysis by factors such as diesel, electricity, labor, consumables, and more

Supply and Demand Outlooks

• Supply forecasts based on key parameters, including development stage, project type, location, owner, specific-country risk, and capital requirements
• Proprietary methodology for mill-head-grade and reserve-grade erosion, life of mine, and supply scenarios
• Demand outlook based on McKinsey’s internal demand model

Individual Mine Models

• Excel outputs feature supply and cost breakdowns, including by parameters such as material moved, run of mine, strip ratio, recoveries, and grades
• Mine models also allow flexing of macroeconomic inputs, commodity prices, exchange rates, oil price, wages, and power price

Our Methodology

Data

Our teams gather and extract data from approved, publicly available sources, and then use a 15,000-point quality inspection to ensure completeness and accuracy.

Enrichment

Whenever possible, we supplement source data with MineSpans' own analysis of more than 1,000 cost and supply data points for each mine—data that’s evaluated by experts to ensure accurate and meaningful results.

Analysis and Insights

Our experts use the consolidated data to generate reports that answer the key questions of commodity demand, supply, and cost. These insights are delivered through an interactive portal, ensuring users can quickly and accurately find the content they require.

Benefits

Rigorous and detailed analysis

Rather than settling for top-down estimates, our cost curves are built bottom-up, based on a robust and detailed analysis. All our models use the same framework, enabling clients to estimate supply and cost globally by commodity, country, region, mine, and operator.

Data quality and transparency

MineSpans employs a global network of analysts with extensive expertise who distill available public information to construct a consistent, structured model for each mining operation. Every sourced MineSpans data point is fully annotated with the original source document so that clients have full transparency into primary sources.

Global mining expertise

MineSpans leverages McKinsey’s 85 years of industry expertise alongside the extensive experience our mining professionals have across the entire mining value chain. Our team’s knowledge of the mining industry allows us to provide the most comprehensive and accurate perspective in the industry.